Sartell ends Bulldogs football season

This article submitted by Zac Spates on 11/3/98.
On Oct. 27, the Paynesville Bulldogs traveled to Sartell to play their first official game of the playoffs. Since Paynesville ended up playing the top ranked team, Sartell, they knew this was going to be a tough challenge. The final score was 38-0.

During the first quarter, Paynesvilleís defense was doing great against the Sartell offense. With a couple of good running backs on the Sartell side, Paynesville was doing a good job at stopping the two burners. T.J. Schultz had an interception late in the first quarter to make it his fifth interception of the season.

On the other hand, Paynesvilleís offense was struggling against their defense. Paynesville was forced to punt three times and they also fumbled twice but recovered them.

The second quarter was looking very good for the Bulldogs. Early in the quarter Sartell was in position to score, but failed to achieve that since Paynesville forced them to fumble the ball on their three-point field goal attempt. Paynesville received the ball three times more often in this quarter, however, all were stopped short of becoming any points by the Sartell defense.

ďNothing worked against their defense, either we were struggling ourselves or their defense was doing very good,Ē replied coach Kyle Nehowig about the situation.

Paynesville was forced to punt all three times, and that set Sartell up for numerous scoring chances. As the clock ticked just under six minutes left in the half, Sartellís attempt at scoring finally prevailed. Sartell scored on a 15-yard pass to one of their receivers, with the point after touchdown (PAT) good. Sartell was now ahead 7-0.

Sartell kept battling Paynesvilleís defense and scored again against them, with 2:10 left in the half. The PAT was good to put Sartell up 14-0. As Paynesville struggled to move the ball, Sartell was in the position once again and succeeded in scoring for their third time. With the PAT good, Sartell was ahead 21-0.

In the third quarter, things just kept getting worse for the Paynesville offense. As they were only forced to punt once more in the game, Paynesville still couldnít move the ball. Sartellís defense was definitely fired up for the game, but Paynesville failed to steal the momentum.

Sartell kept driving and driving the ball against the defense, and they were forced to punt once more, but that was after they scored against Paynesville.

Early in the third quarter, Sartell scored their fourth touchdown of the game, with the PAT good to bring the score to 28-0. Towards the end of the third quarter Sartell also made a field goal to boost their lead to 31-0.

Paynesville was devastated after Sartell lengthened their lead to 31 points. Paynesville could never gain enough momentum to score in the last quarter.

Sartell obviously was pumped, which made it even harder for the Bulldogs to score. Sartellís offense just hammered it to Paynesville once more scoring on a run by one of the running backs. Sartell didnít pass one time in the fourth quarter, leaving all the attack from the backfield. The game ended with a disappointing score for Paynesville of 38-0.

This was Paynesvilleís last game of the year, and for Dustin Looman, Tyler Wuertz, Karl Sanborn, Josh Jones, and Kendall Mohr, this was their last high school football game. They will be greatly missed next year, but the junior class of this year is ready to make up for the losses.

The football team thanks everyone who came to support the team this year, and there will be a final football wrap up in next weekís paper.